MP renews call for moratorium on solar factory developments

Independent Member for Wagga Wagga, Dr Joe McGirr, has renewed his call for a moratorium on new solar developments in NSW.

Dr McGirr wants to see all developments planned for outside the state’s renewable energy zones put on hold until a review by the NSW Agriculture Commissioner is released and a new government guideline document is finalised.

The Agriculture Commissioner Daryl Quinlivan is currently undertaking a review into renewable energy and agriculture in NSW and his final report is expected later this year, while a new Large-Scale Solar Energy Guideline also remains in draft form.

Along with members of the Regional Sustainable Food Alliance, Dr McGirr has met with representatives of the Glanmire Action Group, who travelled to Wagga Wagga to share their experiences in relation to the development of solar factories in the Bathurst area.

After meeting with the Glanmire group and landowners from the Wagga Wagga electorate whose properties will be impacted by proposed developments, Dr McGirr has expressed concerns about the approvals process.

“The process is heavily weighted in favour of the developers. For example, a developer is required to lodge an environmental impact statement, which they can take months to prepare with the help of professionals. And they are well resourced to do this,” he said.

“On the other hand, landowners are given just 28 days to respond with their objections, which hardly seems fair. Landowners don’t have the same resources and have to assess the documents in their own time.”

Dr McGirr said landowners had raised concerns with him about the insurance liability for landowners whose properties adjoin solar factories.

“Most landowners carry $20 million in public liability coverage, but landowners fear this would not cover the cost of damage to a solar factory if, for example, there was a fire. Landowners could be left with an enormous bill,” he said.

“I am also concerned about the fire risk posed by solar developments. Specialist crews with expert knowledge are likely to be needed to fight these fires. It would not be a task for a volunteer Rural Fire Service crew, yet little consideration seems to be given to this.

“Here in NSW, we have renewable energy zones which have been earmarked for solar factory developments with appropriate measures in place to offer additional protections to neighbouring landowners and the broader community, yet new developments are proliferating outside these designated areas, where there are fewer protections.”

Ewan Chandler, from the Glanmire Action Group, believes proposed sites for developments around Bathurst and Wagga Wagga are simply not suitable locations for solar factories.

“The proposed sites have been operated as productive farms, by local farmers in an environmentally sympathetic way, over a long period.  These developments will drive a 30 to 40-year downgrade in land use, from highly productive farming to low value grazing,” Mr Chandler said.

“At a time of emerging world food shortages and increasing prices, it is critical to prevent the loss of productive farmland and locate these projects in Renewable Energy Zones set up by the NSW government.”

Like Dr McGirr, Mr Chandler is concerned about the insurance risks to landowners. 

“Public liability insurance currently available to farmers is typically $20 million, and if farmers or contractors create a fire from normal activities like harvesting, solar operators could litigate for plant damages and business losses. These claims would potentially be more than $100 million, exceeding insurance policies and bankrupting landowners.

“We would like the NSW government to fully implement a framework to protect valuable farming restricting solar plants to a REZ where the government can establish the conditions for a ‘social licence’, and where there is no change in farming activity.”

Mates Gully landowner Rick Martin, whose property adjoins the proposed site for a new solar factory development, shares Dr McGirr’s concern that landowners are disadvantaged during the development application process.

“Landholders are stymied at every turn by government's planning policies,” Mr Martin said.

“The government is demonstrating a blatant lack of respect for agriculture by downgrading the importance of food production and food security and prioritising solar and renewable energy.”

Don Kirkpatrick, whose Maxwell property overlooks a proposed solar factory site, would also like to see developments restricted outside of renewable energy zones.

“This ad hoc piecemeal approach to solar factory proposals and their approval is destroying farming communities,” Mr Kirkpatrick said.

“The companies undertaking these developments are submitting environmental impact statements that have taken professionals months to research and write. They can run into hundreds of pages.

“But a group of landowners are then given just 28 days to respond? This is a particularly egregious part of the whole process that is so fundamentally wrong and heavily skewed in favour of the proponent.

“Outside the renewable energy zones, there are fewer protections for landowners and a different approach to compensation. This is beyond wrong.”